Are YOU Making ALL of the Rules?

Office 365 and other email platform users under threat!

Now that Valentine’s Day is over, we are sure you are sitting in your chair, surrounded by the dozens of cards you received from your many fans and admirers, just like you do every year!

But imagine this year, after reading through all the cheeky written messages and saucy banter, your cards were then collected by the postman and delivered to a total stranger, who in turn, has a good chuckle to themselves at your expense!

Well, despite this more light-hearted scenario, imagine the same situation, but with your confidential emails!

There has been a recent increase in hackers gaining access to Office 365  and other email accounts and inserting hidden rules to forward YOUR personal emails to THIER own accounts.

 

“SO WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?”

Whether you are a business owner or not, we all receive confidential emails that we would like to keep private, such as bank statements, invoices or simply personal emails.

Once a hacker has gained access to your account, forwarding rules are then created so that e-mails are forwarded on to an external email address. These new rules are set to run automatically and silently, and typically a user may not become aware of this for several months…. If ever!

“HOW DID THEY ACCESS MY EMAIL ACCOUNT?”

Hackers are always thinking up ingenious ways to steal credentials and access your personal accounts, so it is very difficult to pinpoint exactly how they got in.

However, in a typical scenario a user accessing a website may have inadvertently used their Office 365 or email login details when asked for a username and password.

This information is then captured and potentially used to gain access to the user’s email account.

“WHAT CAN I DO?”

To avoid such issues, we strongly recommend you steer-clear from entering your credentials (both your email address and password) on other websites.

In addition, following the identification of this security flaw we are recommending all users conduct an immediate review of their Office 365 email accounts (or other platforms), to ensure Auto Forwarding has not been enabled.

If you would you like us to conduct a proactive audit of any of your email accounts, including Office 365, or seek advice on solutions for advanced security and want to get back to making your OWN rules, then contact our friendly IT support specialists on:

01444 238070